Zone Track Meet

This last week I headed back to school and right back into the thick of things once again. On Friday we had the Zone Meet, where all schools on Savaii competed in a track meet. Unfortunatly we only had about 2o students competing because the rest of our students and teachers were doing a Festivities in Apia with our sister school. A select few got to stay behind and compete in the events. As I am the Head Athletic Trainer, that included me as well.


Me and the students and our ride to the meet. 4 other students just got out of the back before this pic was taken, so it was nice and crowded. We arrived singing songs and clapping loudly, like any good sports team should do. We left the school around 6am, still pitch dark. The meet ended around 2pm, blazing hot.

My team. 3 girls, not enough for a relay. The one girl without the uniform on was just visiting. We have a decent Senior boys 4x4 team, in spirit of when I ran. :) And we have a fairly good 1500 m boy runner too. We'll see how they improve as they learn better form and have more training.

Most field events aren't really taught proper form. A few schools have coaches that know proper throwing and jumping form. We have no students competing in Field events this year because of the festivities. This athelete is from Amoa College, doing the scissor kick over the highjump. At least she cleared it!

None of my students are in this picture, but I wanted to show what the start to the 100meter looks like. A lot different from in the states. The track is all grass, lined with oil for lanes. Sprinters don't use blocks and very few of them actually have shoes on.

One of my athletes on the left. Came in 2nd place in the heat and 2nd place overall in the 100m. They run the athletes according to age. So, juniors compete against only juniors and so on. There are 3 levels: Juniors (ages 14-15) , Intermediate(ages 16-17), and Seniors(ages 18-21). This student is in the Intermediate age group.

In other news I am back in Apia again for another round of medicine to kill off the malaria. After this I will be done. I will still be tired for awhile, but nothing too serious. Until next time...